Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Lego/Marble Contraption - Creating a Standard

The students have decided to create a big, Rube Goldberg contraption out of Legos.

Furthermore, they are creating an engineering standard so that contraption modules can be built by kids at different schools, and joined together easily at an event!

Here is what a contraption looks like from the world's current standard, GBC (Great Ball Contraption):

However, our students created a standard without yet knowing about GBC.

The biggest problem with GBCs it that they are based on Lego balls (soccer, basketball), which are no longer in production, and thus rare and expensive. They typically cost around 50 cents each in bulk, and if marble contraptions take off as a school activity, they will become even harder to find. Also, they are in many ways too light, and their textured surface sometimes leads to them getting stuck.